For three months in 2006, [lawyer Helianti] Hilman visited one remote village after the other, providing free consultations to farmers who found themselves in a variety of legal woes and business disputes.
Growing at the front and back yards of the now-deceased farmer’s home were rice varieties which Mdm Hilman, 52, never knew existed.
One rice variety has fibres jutting out from one end of its husks, she learned, while the other is so resilient it requires very little irrigation. She also discovered that one variety has a tough texture and another is soft and exudes a pleasant smell when properly cooked.
“As someone who loves cooking, I was like a kid in a candy store,” she told CNA about seeing dozens of rice varieties which many older Indonesians had forgotten about, let alone still preserve.
And so began an insatiable obsession to rediscover these long-lost Indonesian rice varieties from all over the country and introduce them to the masses.
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These forgotten local rice, Prof [Dwi Andreas] Santosa said, include varieties which are very resilient to extreme weather and harsh environments and could hold the key in our efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change and prevent a global food crisis.
